Karan Johar revisits 'Ae Dil Hai Mushkil' on 10th anniversary, defends its flaws

“Ae Dil Hai Mushkilwill always be a personal story to me, a culmination of many pieces of my pursuits of love and longing and perhaps also many of my own heartbreaks,” he wrote. “I realised that one-sided love did not need remorse or sympathy.

It didn’t warrant pain or empathy. All it needed was deep and intense understanding that the power of love is so much larger than the reciprocation of the same,” he further said.

He added that a person did not need to be loved in return to find meaning or empowerment in their feelings, describing the experience of loving someone as powerful in its own right.

“Loving someone has to be an act of selflessness and we as a community of lovers have to disassociate the ‘I’ in ‘I LOVE YOU’,” he wrote, adding that selflessness was where true love resided. Johar said this understanding ultimately inspired him to tell the story of.

Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, which explored the emotional complications of loving someone who might not feel the same way. Rather than presenting unrequited love solely as a source of suffering, the film examined how affection, friendship, desire and emotional attachment can become intertwined, leaving those involved struggling to define their relationships.

View this post on Instagram. Johar also acknowledged the divided responses to the film. “I do admit that it wasn’t without its flaws and had several polarised responses, especially to its third act,” he wrote.

However, he maintained that he would tell the story in the same way even today, accepting its perceived imperfections. “No art can be perfect and all interpretation is welcome but conviction has to trump all logic and sensibility when you want to be an unabashed story teller,” he added.

His comments underscored his willingness to stand by the artistic choices behind the film, even when audiences disagreed with its narrative decisions. For Johar, the emotional conviction that inspired the story mattered more than achieving universal approval.

He also thanked Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Fawad Khan for bringing his vision to life, praising their interpretations of the characters. He expressed gratitude to the entire cast and crew for creating what he described as the perfect “vatavaran” — Hindi for atmosphere or environment — on set.

Johar had also taken to Instagram in 2024 to praise Kapoor’s approach to his role, describing what he called “the Ranbir process”. “He never let his homework or his hard work apparent to anyone.

I got to know and love him as a person and appreciate his detachment from stardom or movie star trappings, his child-like portrayal of a broken-hearted lover went beyond the written word. Anushka and him were such a treat to direct.

They have mutual friendship and respect which transcended from personal to celluloid perfectly!” he wrote. View this post on Instagram. Released in 2016, the film featured Kapoor as Ayan, Sharma as Alizeh, Rai Bachchan as Saba and Khan as Ali.

It explored the complexities of unrequited love, friendship and relationships in which emotional attachment did not always lead to romantic fulfilment. Its central premise challenged the expectation that love must be reciprocated to be meaningful, a theme that continues to invite discussion among viewers.

Returning to that idea in his anniversary post, Johar expressed gratitude not only to the people who helped create the film but also to those who had embraced its story. “10 years ago we love.

The essence of our story was ‘ek tarfa pyaar’ but the love we have towards all the lovers of our love story is unconditional,” he wrote.

He ended his note with an affectionate message to the film’s audience: “Love you all from the bottom of our hearts…”Johar signed off with the line “Accha chalta hoon, duaon mein yaad rakhna”, from the film’s title track, sung by Arijit Singh.